Review of Backdraft (1991) by Stuart K — 06 Feb 2015

Directed by Ron Howard, who after making Parenthood (1989), which had touched upon a lot of mature themes, decided he wanted to make more serious films for a living. So, he set about looking for a suitable film, and he found it in this action-thriller written by Gregory Widen (Highlander (1986)), and it's a powerful and well made film, and Howard gets the best from his cast and even the fire sequences.

The film focuses on the firefighters of Engine 17 of the Chicago Fire Department, in particular, 2 brothers. Lt. Stephen "Bull" McCaffrey (Kurt Russell) and Brian McCaffrey (William Baldwin), the latter witnessed his father Dennis (Russell again) killed in a backdraft of fire 20 years before.

Mayoral candidate Alderman Martin Swayzak (J.T. Walsh) wants to make cuts to the city's fire department budget, which the team argue will risk lives. Then, a series of fires occur around Chicago that all seem very similar, and arson investigator Donald "Shadow" Rimgale (Robert De Niro) finds out more, and he even calls upon Brian to help out, much to Stephen's jealousy.

It's well made, and it helped to advance Howard's career significantly, and he was blessed with a good, strong cast, and it has some very realistic action sequences, all well choreographed considering they deal with working with fire.

It might come across as cliched in places, but it's still a well made and very tense and taut film.